Map of US Food Recalls and other Health GIS News

The application uses public feeds from FDA, USDA, and CFIA and, using semantic technology, analyzes recall data. The application then translates the information into a user-friendly map interface accessible at myFoodAlerts.com. Data about the feed is also published into the data.gov format.

A study used GIS to explore the impact of avgas (a type of gas used in aircraft) on levels in the blood of children near airports in NC that use it. The FAA is looking at regulations on the gas.

Methods: We used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to approximate areas surrounding airports in which lead from avgas may be present in elevated concentrations in air and may also be deposited to soil. We then used regression analysis to examine the relationship between residential proximity to airports and NC blood lead surveillance data in children aged 9 months to 7 years while controlling for factors including age of housing, socioeconomic characteristics, and seasonality.

The result suggest higher levels in the blood for children up to 1000M from the airport with the most pronounced effect within 500M.